Hydrogen Management

Hydrogen Management

Generating Liquid sodium hypochlorite on-site and on-demand has obvious safety advantages. The handling of gaseous chemicals like chlorine powder and gas is eliminated. So also, the hazards and risk that come with storing chlorine gas /powder is substituted with the onsite generation of sodium hypochlorite.

However, one of the disadvantages of the electrolytic process is that hydrogen gas is also created as a by-product. The hydrogen should be vented by design into the atmosphere as the liquid sodium hypochlorite enters the degassing tank. Anything contrary to this could be fatal.

There is a recorded incident at a water treatment plant where a hydrogen vent was faulty. This led to a blockage of the vent, forcing the hydrogen gas into the liquid holding tank where it accumulated over time. During the process of repairing a leak in the tank, plant workers had drained the tank to within a few inches before lowering an electric pump into the tank to remove the remaining liquid. When the switch was thrown to turn on the pump, the tank exploded. Unfortunately, one death was recorded.

Another incident was recorded where hydrogen separation in the electrolyzer cell was not performed correctly since the package design did not meet the process requirements and did not have the proper control philosophy to turn off the device on time, hence leading to an explosion.

These avoidable accidents were evidently caused by a design flaw or a lack of hydrogen detection mechanism, in the system.

At Ultranode, our UL-SW and UL-BR Electrochlorination systems, Liquid storage, and the degassing process are done in one common tank and the device comes with:

  • An active and effective hydrogen venting mechanism.
  • A fully automated system with warning signs and local alarms designed to activate when hydrogen ventilation lines are obstructed

Ultranode provides detailed technical design for all our Electrochlorination systems. Our guarantees on our products are sacrosanct because above all, we consider the safety of the workforce and environment. You can contact us for all Engineering, Procurement, and commissioning projects

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

Menu